The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 14,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Deb Goehring posted this….after reading it I feel sick and angry at the same time…it’s like a bad dream…Kris and I visited Ometepe recently and fell under it’s spell. I can’t just believe what they say may happen will come to pass..”say it ain’t so.” The canal would change everything and I doubt the gains would outweigh the losses. Rant over.

I don’t often respond to the WordPress Daily Post, however Someone Else’s Islandspoke to me personally. Ron recently asked me, “Debbie, what would we take if we were forced to leave Ometepe Island?” My post is a twist on Someone Else’s Island, instead of being stranded on an island, what would we take if we were forced to leave?

Everyone is nervously awaiting the construction of the Nicaraguan Canal by the Chinese. Construction is supposed to start on December 22nd. I am taking this personally because what if Ometepe Island becomes someone else’s island? I heard rumors…that’s all we get…that over 300,000 Chinese will be granted Nicaraguan citizenship to work on the canal.

The map below shows that one half of our beloved island will be controlled by the Chinese. Everything in red along the canal route.

The Help Los Ramos Rebuild donation website has been extremely successful. Thanks to YOUR support for this lovely indigenous community, you have given them hope and encouragement to rebuild their community of 125 families who were affected by the October 8th landslides on Ometepe Island.

Kris (my wife) wrote a great piece about an article I saw that said that a percentage of folks polled said they would rather ” die early” than life through their retirement without enoug money for a comfortable retirement. I don’t know how “early” they wanted to die, but I was shocked to hear that sentiment expressed by so many. Kris wrote a thougtful post that I felt was worth putting on my blog.
Peace, Joel

I think it is common knowledge that many people are going to have a hard time affording a comfortable retirement, and we all know people who plan to work until they drop because they feel they have no other choice. Joel came across an article recently – Middle-Class Americans Living With Regret About Retirement Savings One line jumped out at me

In a new survey question added this year, 22 percent said they would rather “die early” than live without enough money for a comfortable retirement.

More than one in five people are afraid they will be so poor that the time will come when life isn’t worth living. What a sad statement.

I can quote more statistics and link to more articles but I don’t think we need convincing that many people are going to retire with less than they think they need, or won’t retire at all. What does…

“This planet is a broken bone that didn’t set right, a hundred pieces of crystal glued together. We’ve been shattered and reconstructed.” ~ Tahereh Mafi

Broken lives…125 families forced to reconstruct their lives from the devastating rock and mudslides on Ometepe Island, Nicaragua. Yesterday, Ron and I tramped over boulders and through mud to reach the Los Ramos community to deliver supplies to the families. Take a walk with us so you can see for yourselves Mother Nature’s powerful and destructive forces.

Supplies were delivered at the top of the hill. “So far, this doesn’t look too bad,” I said encouragingly to Ron.

The bulldozers had cleared about 200 meters from the main road. Easy walking so far.

A few feet later, we came to the part of the road that had been dismembered like a severed limb, cutting the families off from the rest of the island and the…

I was raised in the belief that one should always be humble, which I interpreted as being meek, never accepting a compliment, and certainly never acknowledging a gift or a talent one might have. But, this week, I learned that I have completely misunderstood this virtue.
Instead of an eyes cast down, submissive, weak, breast-beating virtue; I discovered within me an ability to take an honest appraisal of my abilities, and accept responsibility for the good and not-so-good things that I have done.

After the horrifying mud and rock slides that consumed the indigenous community of Los Ramos, I took a hard look at what I could do to help this community. What was I good at doing? What was I ridiculously silly at attempting to do?

Deb posted again to Facebook and I’m passing it on- boy, I would have loved to be there and given out some donations and a hug or two! Here are Deb’s

The families all lined up, Ever had a list of the families and checked off each name as they came by. The bags were all delivered within 30 minutes…every bag!!!

words and photos:

125 bags of supplies packed and waiting for the families to arrive at Ever’s house.

This is what your donations bought for each family…plus clothes were added at the last minute. —

When we arrived at Ever’s house, the community was bagging all of the food and other things we bought yesterday. “Say pizza,” I said. “Where’s the pizza?” they responded

It was a hugging kind of day! 125 hugs received. The people were so loving and they are great huggers!

When we were getting ready to walk back up the hill, all the families had gathered in the church to give thanks. The music and singing followed us as we walked up the hill. I was so touched, all I could do was cry.

This family is heading home with their goodie bag. We still have $600 left to spend. I think maybe piglets and chickens will be our next purchase.